What a brand book should actually contain
7 min read · July 2026
Most brand books are too long to be used. A short one that gets followed beats a thorough one that sits in a shared drive.
The test is simple: can someone who was not in the project make a correct decision from it in under two minutes? If not, it is documentation rather than a tool.
What earns a page
The marks, with the two or three lockups that will actually be used.
Type: the sizes and weights in the real system, not the whole family.
Colour with usage rules, including which pairings are illegal.
Three or four worked examples of the brand applied correctly.
Rules people can follow are worth more than rationale people will skip.
Everything else — the moodboards, the rejected directions, the strategy narrative — belongs in a separate document that nobody has to open to do their job.
Jessica Cruz-Abalos
The brand half of That One Couple. Identity, art direction and visual systems.